The present invention relates to bio-electric stimulators utilized and more particularly to stimulation by transcutaneous application of electricity as a therapeutic tool.
In medicine the earliest known bio-electric stimulators for the direct application of electricity to the human skin as a therapeutic tool appeared around 1750. The direct application of electrical stimulation to human neuronal tissue or stimulation has also been in a therapeutic use for the past 20 years.
Various therapeutic applications of mild electric stimulation, in contrast to gross stimulation such as electroconvulsive shock, directly applied to human skin has been purported to include sleep induction or curing of insomnia, anesthesia, analgesia, attenuation of withdrawal from drug addiction, relief from asthma, as well as relief from anxiety and depression.
The therapeutic applications of direct electrical stimulation to neural tissue or subcutaneous stimulation includes induction of analgesia, allevation of symptoms of multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and spasticity, facilitation of the healing of non-union bone fractures, cardiac and diaphragm pacemakers, as well as electrical bladder control. Another application of electrical stimulation is in the field of bio-research, primarily electrophysiology.